The invention relates to the technical field of cutting implements of the knife type, comprising a fixed blade integral with a handle.
More particularly, the invention relates to knives for professional use for cutting different kinds of products. A particular example is knives used in the agrofoodstuffs industry, e.g. for slaughtering or cutting up meat or the like. Clearly, knives for household usage for cutting up meat and so forth fall within the scope of the invention.
As is perfectly familiar, the knife has a cutting blade attached to a handle of appropriate ergonomic shape. The blade is usually made of treated stainless steel, while the handle may be made from a variety of different materials, such as wood, plastics etc.
According to the intended application, the blade has different profiles, on the one hand, and different features for making the cut itself, on the other.
In whatever form they are produced, these knives are not as safe as they should be for the user, if one considers certain working conditions. Often the user is obliged not only to exert a downward force to make a cut, but also a pushing force along the handle in order to drive the blade into the product on which he is working. There is thus a serious risk that the hand may, as it applies this pushing force, slide off the handle and onto the cutting edge of the blade. Cuts of greater or lesser severity occur, therefore, sometimes with severing of the ligaments.
Where they join the blade, certain knife handles have an enlargement which in certain cases can be used as a bearing point for the user""s hand but it can in no way prevent the hand from sliding onto the cutting edge of the blade. In other words, there is little real protection. This state of the art can be illustrated by the teachings of patents GB 2171628 and EP 0283445.
The problem addressed by the invention is how to protect the fingers of the hand of the user holding the knife handle in a simple, safe, effective and efficient manner by making it impossible for the hand to slide onto the cutting edge of the blade. It was also felt important to take into account the problem of the positioning of the cutting edge of the blade, which must be as low as possible for a given work surface. The dimensions of the blade, particularly its length, thickness and height, are of course dictated by directives depending directly on the nature of the work to be carried out.
To solve these various problems, a cutting implement of the type comprising, in a manner known per se, a fixed blade integral with a handle that has features, in the vicinity of the interface between it and the blade, such as to protect the fingers of the user from the cutting edge of the said blade, has been devised and developed.
The problem of how to provide effective and certain protection of the user""s fingers is solved in that the features of the handle are a hooked profile formed very roughly in the thickness and continuation of the interface between the handle and the blade to give a part that is bent away from the blade in the general form of a C so as to protect at least two fingers while leaving the others free.
To solve the problem of how to provide protection for the fingers of the hand while at the same time having the C-shaped objective of enabling the handle to be released very easily if necessary, the C-shaped profile defines an open inner loop comprising, on the outside, a straight segment extending roughly parallel to the straight upper edge of the handle and is joined to the interface of the handle by a straight segment set at an angle in order to allow the user always to incline the blade with respect to a given work surface in order to allow a sufficient length of contact for the cutting edge.
With this conception as the basis, either the hooked profile is situated roughly in line with the cutting edge of the blade, or roughly in line with the back of the blade.
To solve the problem of the positioning of the cutting blade with respect to the work surface, the blade is set low and inclined with respect to the upper edge of the handle so as to position the cutting edge of the said blade as close as possible to a work surface.
To solve the problem of lowering the cutting edge of the blade with respect to a work surface, particularly at the attacking portion of the blade, that is to say its free end, the angle at which the blade joins the handle is roughly between 5xc2x0 and 25xc2x0. The angle at which the blade is joined is preferably 10xc2x0.
The handle and the protective hooked profile are produced together by plastic injection molding.